Skylights set for preseason conference tournament

With an 8-5 record in their non-conference schedule, the Montana State University-Northern volleyball team is looking to carry that success into Frontier Conference play this fall. While their matches this weekend will not go toward the standings, the Skylights hope to use the Preseason Frontier Conference Tournament at Armory Gymnasium to get better before the matches matter.

The Skylights will play four of their five conference opponents this weekend. While MSU-N finished near the bottom of the standings last season, MSU-N head coach Jerry Wagner expects some competitive matches through the weekend.

"All the teams in this conference have shown very well this year and are in a different place than they were last year," Wagner said. "I'm expecting excellent competition."

MSU-N will begin the weekend with a match Friday afternoon against University of Montana, Western. The Bulldogs finished their non-conference slate with a 5-3 record, the third best record in the conference. In this past spring season, the Skylights went 1-3 against UMW.

The Skylights will then play again Friday night where they will play Montana Tech. The Orediggers are tied for the best non-conference record in the Frontier as they are 9-2. Last spring, MSU-N went 0-4 against the Orediggers.

Saturday morning, the Skylights will play Carroll College. The Saints are fifth in the conference with a 5-4 record through their non-conference slate. The Skylights went 2-3 against Carroll in the spring, including a 3-2 win in the Frontier Conference Tournament.

The Skylights will end the weekend Saturday night with a match against University of Providence. The Argonauts did well in the non-conference portion of their season as they have a 9-2 record, tied for best in the Frontier. MSU-N also struggled against Providence last spring as they went 0-5 against the Argonauts, including a 3-0 loss to end the season in the Frontier Conference Tournament.

The only Frontier Conference team the Skylights will not play this weekend is Rocky Mountain College because they will play them in their conference opener Sept. 25. In the matches they will play this weekend, Wagner does not expect his opponents to experiment or pull any punches even though they are preseason matches.

"It's more of a conference message sending time. I don't think there's going to be a lot of experimentation," Wagner said. "The stakes are pretty high."

Even though the Skylights struggled to defeat these teams last season, Wagner believes the teams' records so far this season show they are evenly matched. Wagner also believes the Skylights have improved in closing out sets and matches which troubled them last season.

"I think we're competing at a different level and I'm pretty happy about it," Wagner said. "We're at a good point right now and I think we've had a very nice preseason."

With a chance to show the conference what they got, Wagner hopes his team can continue to execute the way they did in their non-conference matches.

"I hope to see quite a bit more of what I have been seeing," Wagner said. "A team that's slowly moving up our team hitting percentage, a team that's actually blocking a few more balls than we did a year ago."

MSU-N volleyball will begin competing in the Preseason Frontier Conference Tournament Friday at 1 p.m. at Armory Gymnasium.